Liberica Anaerobic Honey Mosto

Liberica is a different species and a much tougher tree. It takes heat, poor ground and low elevation that would finish an arabica, and for most of the last century that hardiness is exactly why it was written off. A coffee that grows anywhere was assumed to be worth nothing in particular, and generations of it went to commodity without anyone asking a better question of it.

This lot grows in Kendal at 800 metres. At that elevation there is no altitude to lean on and no cold nights to do the work, so if the cup is going to be worth anything it has to come from the processing. That is the whole of Reza Nurullah's position and he has held it for years.

He runs it as an anaerobic honey with a double mosto and an inoculated strain. Mosto is the fermented juice held back from an earlier batch and carried into the next, so the ferment starts from something already established rather than from nothing. The mucilage stays on the bean through the dry, and on Liberica that layer is thicker and carries more sugar than an arabica ever offers.

The argument is being settled elsewhere. Elysia Tan placed fourth at the 2025 World Brewers Cup using Liberica as part of the blend. A year later an Indonesian Liberica sat in Jill Hoff's winning routine at the Canada Barista Championship. The species was never the problem.

Peach leads, soft and ripe. Salak follows, sweet and faintly tannic the way only snakefruit is. Tropical fruit fills the middle and sugarcane closes it out green.